The Tale of Charlotte and Nicole
by ToSayTheLeast
Summary: This is the story of Charlotte and Nicole. It begins the night they meet, goes through what we've seen on the show, and into their later years. It will mostly explore their relationship, but does include their friends and families. This is a femslash romance story. Enjoy.
1. Chapter 1: Karaoke Bar

**Author's Note: I don't write fanfics often, but I really like this pairing. I hope you enjoy it. **

**I am looking for a beta, if any of you are interested send me a message. Please, read and review. Tell me what you would like to see in the following chapters.**

This fic is going to follow Nicole and Charlotte through their meeting through what we've seen on the show and beyond.

**I am posting as I write, so bear with me. It is nearing finals week for me, so it might be a bit slow coming at first. I'll post when I can.**

CHAPTER ONE: KARAOKE NIGHT

"Come on, Nicole. You lost, fair and square." Helena said, crossing her arms, yet the smile didn't leave her face. She was still basking in her victory—she had finally defeated Nicole.

They had started making bets one drunken night when Helena had bet Colby that Union soldiers suffered greater causalities than the Confederate in the Battle of Gettysburg, despite the fact that the Union won. Colby lost the bet by a small margin, which meant he had to babysit her two toddlers the following Friday while her husband took her out to dinner.

They had been placing bets against each other ever since. Nicole had been at Fort Drum for six months now. She'd made fast friends with Helena, Colby, and a few other men and women on-and-off base, and was quickly integrated into the groups' betting system. In that six months, however, Nicole had yet to lose.

Her loss was the perfect excuse to bring an end to Nicole's silence on their monthly karaoke nights. Nicole sighed, "I know, I know." She made her way to the stage. Telling the stage manager her song choice, she headed up the stairs. She had chosen one of her favorites, "Hit Me with Your Best Shot" by Pat Benatar.

Her first thought as she stared out at the crowd was she wasn't drunk enough for this. Her second was a reminder that it was just karaoke—bad singing wasn't going to get her killed. About halfway through the song, the crowd had finally had enough. They started to boo and shout for her to get of the stage.

In all honesty, their heckling didn't surprise her, but regardless of how many people told her to quit, she wouldn't give up. She was nearly through the song before she realized that someone was cheering. Confused, she looked towards her group of friends.

Helena, Colby, and the rest of the group found Nicole's singing to be hilarious. Half of them were laughing so hard, tears were running down their face. The other half—feeling their friend's pain—were clapping, but none of them were the source of the cheering.

Looking over towards the bar, her eyes instantly found the beautiful woman that supported Nicole's performance. She offered the woman a smile from the stage, as the song ended. Nicole backed away from the microphone, taking a bow before descending the stage.

She bypassed her friends and headed towards the bar. The bartender slid a drink in front of her, "On the house." Nicole sent him a questioning look, "Not many people would have finished out the song with that kind of response from the crowd."

With a shrug, Nicole gestured to the woman that had cheered for her, "Well, I need to thank the one person that didn't boo me off the stage. Her next rounds on me." She paid for the round before making her way down the bar.

The woman gestured towards the empty seat next to her. "Thank you, for the drink."

"You're the one that deserves a thank you." Nicole deflected. "I wouldn't even cheer for my own singing."

"Maybe, I was cheering for the person." She offered Nicole a smile.

Nicole returns the smile, "Either way, thank you…"

"Charlotte." She offers when Nicole trails off.

"Nicole." She introduces herself.

"It takes a lot to get up on that stage—I couldn't imagine what I'd do if people started heckling at me like that…" She frowned.

"Well, I know I can't sing." Nicole shrugged. "It's just karaoke—why let something so insignificant impact your evening?"

"I've seen you in here before with your friends." Charlotte explains. "What made you take the stage tonight? If you knew you couldn't sing."

"I lost a bet." Nicole answers. "They had been bugging me to sing since I started coming here with them a few months ago, but I always refused. I wasn't all that surprised that this was my punishment."

"You stuck it out though." Charlotte pointed out.

"Well, I might not be good at it, but I don't ever quit because someone else doesn't like it." She took a drink of her beer. "It would go against my core values."

Charlotte nodded, studying Nicole in a new light. "That's a good mantra to live by."

"I haven't seen you get up and sing tonight." She changed the topic.

"Oh. I don't sing." Charlotte laughs. "I'm here with my roommate, Tom." She motions to the guy on stage.

Nicole listens to Tom sing for a few moments. "He's good."

"He loves karaoke." Charlotte nodded.

"Okay, Okay. We concede. We won't make you sing again." Helena came up behind them, presenting their truce. "Come back. Colby is starting to tell jokes…"

With a roll of her eyes in Charlotte's direction, she turns to Helena, "I'll be over in a minute." Helena sighs, but heads back to the table.

Nicole smiles at Charlotte, "Well, it was a pleasure meeting you." She gets up from the barstool.

"Same here." She watches Nicole walk back to her group of friends—just as her roommate comes back from his turn on stage.

He follows her gaze, "Interested?" He asks simply, taking the seat Nicole had occupied.

Charlotte looks towards Tom, "Maybe."

He motions for a drink while grabbing the napkin in front of him to wipe the sweat from his brow. "Well, it looks like someone is interested in you." Tom slides the napkin over to her.

Charlotte glances at the number scrawled on the napkin with the name Nicole written above it before placing it in her bag.

The two groups closed down the bar that night. Nicole and Charlotte both sending glances in the other's direction when the crowd allowed. Nicole was so smashed by the end of the evening that she took the stage for the second time that night, to sing "Girls Just Wanna Have Fun" by Cyndi Lauper.

As she laid on Helena's couch, she wondered briefly if Charlotte would call her…


	2. Chapter 2: We Meet Again

**Author's Note: Sorry for the delay, as I noted in the last chapter, it was finals week(s) at my college. The last day of Finals was today. For here on, I should update at least once a week, maybe twice a week if I am particularly inspired. Please read and review.**

CHAPTER TWO: WE MEET AGAIN

Nicole dropped her keys and dog tags onto the table near the door of her apartment with a sigh. Work had left her exhausted, and it was her own fault. She'd known she had an early shift today due to PT, yet when Helena and Colby came around talking about this new bar, she had gone along with it. Waking up this morning, she regretted the decision almost immediately. It felt like any, and all, movement made her want to puke, her head was pounding, and she felt sluggish.

As the day went on, she began to feel a bit better, but as she got over the hangover it was replaced by sheer exhaustion. Now that she was home, all she wanted to do was grab a cold slice of pizza, take a quick shower, and fall into bed.

She walked into the kitchen, grabbing the leftover pizza and headed into the bedroom. Sitting the plate beside her own the bed, she took off the top to her fatigues and kicked off her shoes. Using the wall for support, she pressed play on the answering machine before taking a bite out of her dinner.

She had three new messages. The first message was from Colby, reminding her about his kid's birthday party on Saturday. Jade? Jaden? She shook her head. She gotten the kid a few books of bedtime stories and a stuffed animal cat.

The second message was from her mother, Lorraine. For a moment she considered skipping over the message, knowing it would just be the usual message. Had she found a church to attend yet? How were the new friends? Was she seeing anyone? Along with a reminder not to overwork herself and to eat properly. She rolled her eyes, knowing she'd have to call her back soon.

She didn't recognize who the third message was from at her first, as the greeting was drawn out and a bit hesitant, before she realized it was Charlotte—from the karaoke bar. It took Nicole by surprise—figuring the woman would just lose her number.

"_Hi…Nicole. This is…Charlotte. We met the other night…at the karaoke bar. I don't know if this is really your thing….but there is this poetry slam…at the café on Crouse—right up the street from SU…on Friday night. I was wondering if you would…want to check it out with me…My phone number is 315-555-2283… Have a nice day."_

She pressed the save button. Nicole considered the message as she finished her slice of pizza. She walked the plate back to the kitchen, grabbing a piece of paper and a pen before heading back to her room. Replaying the message, she took down Charlotte's number. With a glance of her watch she picked up her phone and punched in the number.

It took three rings before someone picked up the phone, "Hello?" The voice on the other end wasn't Charlotte's.

"Umm…Hi. Is Charlotte around?" She asked the unknown woman.

"One moment." The woman said before calling to Charlotte that the phone was for her.

Then, there was some shuffling before Charlotte's voice came over the phone, "Hello?"

"Hi, umm, this is Nicole. I received your message_" She started.

"Oh! Good." Charlotte interjected. "I was wondering if you'd call back. If poetry isn't your thing, we could always go grab a coffee or a drink some other time_"

Nicole smiled at Charlotte's nervousness. "No, no. It sounds fun." She commented. "I went to a few back when I was completing my undergrad…"

"Great. I know that they aren't everyone's cup of tea, but I love listening to the stories they tell and the emotions they share through poetry… It is so inspirational." Charlotte rambled.

Nicole leaned back against the wall, "I like the messages they are trying to send the audience. Poetry can be captivating…"

"I figured we could meet up at the café at 6:30, if that works for you…" Charlotte suggested. "It starts at 7, so it would give us some time to talk beforehand."

Nicole glanced at the calendar next to her bed to confirm her work schedule. "That works for me."

"Great." Charlotte replied.

"So… I'll see you then." Nicole smiled.

"See you then… Have a good night," Charlotte offered.

"You, too." Nicole replaced the phone on the receiver with a smile. She been deployed over the past year and hadn't really had much luck meeting people at her last post, so she hoped this was a sign that it be different here… 

Nicole walked into the café, looking around for Charlotte. The place had a moderate-sized crowd gathered at the moment and figured that the crowd would grow as it got closer to seven. She was about fifteen minutes early, but her mother had always taught her "if you are five minutes early, you are ten minutes late," and the military had made punctuality even more of a priority.

She picked one of the empty tables off to the left of the stage. It gave offered some privacy to talk, but allowed for a good view of the stage at the same time. As she waited for Charlotte, her nerves started to get the better of her.

Part of the reason she'd had so much trouble dating when stationed in Michigan was they'd really started to crack down on DADT. She hadn't seen as much of that here, but Nicole knew she ran a risk every time she went out alone with another woman, as there had always been rumors surrounding her sexuality. However, she had always been pretty good at avoiding any outright accusations.

Before she could continue on that thought any further, she spotted Charlotte by the door and stood to greet her.

Charlotte met her with a hug. "I'm glad you could make it tonight. My friends keep telling me a poetry slam is a waste of a Friday night."

Nicole pulled out the chair for Charlotte before returning to her own. "My friends would agree." She explained with a smile. "They are going back to this new bar that we checked out the other night. They couldn't believe I was passing that up to listen to poetry."

"So why aren't you here and not at the bar with them?" Charlotte folded her hands on top of the table.

"Well, going to bars isn't really my thing." Nicole shrugged. "My friends tend to frequent them, though. I figured I could use the break, and an offer of poetry and good company sounded like just the thing to replace it." She paused for a moment before adding, "Plus, I have a 'Baby's First Birthday Party' tomorrow. Having to deal with hangovers on workdays is one thing, while going to a party filled with screaming babies and idle chit chat is another… Why are you at a poetry slam at on a Friday night?"

Charlotte studied Nicole for a moment. "I knew that none of my friends would want to come with me, so it was the perfect opportunity to meet up with someone new… Plus, as I mentioned at the karaoke bar, I like watching people perform."

"Fair enough. Would you like something to drink?" Nicole offered.

"Sure. I'll have a Chai Tea with cream." Charlotte smiled.

"Alright. I'll be right back." Nicole made her way to the counter, hoping the night continued to go well.


End file.
